Is avoiding people who have rubella an effective way to protect yourself?
Avoiding people who have rubella is not an effective way to stop yourself from catching the disease and passing it on to your unborn child (or your friends’ unborn children) because: • People are infectious before they develop the symptoms • Some people who catch rubella (and can then pass it on) do not develop any symptoms • Rubella is a rash disease and can appear, even to a GP, like other rash diseases. They only way to confirm a diagnosis is through laboratory tests, by which time it is too late… Why are boys immunised against rubella? The simple reason is that boys can pass on rubella to pregnant women. If they are not immunised they risk catching the disease and passing it on to their Mums and their friends’ Mums who may be pregnant. Why is a mass vaccination schedule better than a selective one? By immunising all children, as we have done in the UK since 1988 with MMR, you stop the disease circulating so it isn’t able to come into contact with pregnant women. Such immunisation s
